Rating(s)

Mode(s)

Single player

Media

Disc, download

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is the fourth main installment in the Crash Bandicoot series and is the first game of the series to be on PlayStation 2 as well as Xbox and Nintendo GameCube. It was developed by Traveller's Tales, ported to GameCube by Eurocom, and published by Universal Interactive Studios and Konami. The game was released for PlayStation 2 on October 29, 2001 in North America, November 23, 2001 for Europe, December 20, 2001 for Japan, and March 28, 2003 for South Korea. The game's Xbox release was April 15, 2002 for North America, April 26, 2002 for Europe, and October 24, 2002 for Japan. The game was released for Nintendo GameCube on September 17, 2002 in North America, November 1, 2002 in Europe, and December 4, 2003 in Japan. The game was also a launch title for the Xbox Originals lineup for Xbox 360 which released on December 4, 2007 in North America and December 12, 2007 in Europe[2].

Contents

The game's story starts off at a space station where Uka Uka is having a meeting with Doctor Neo Cortex, Doctor N. Gin, Doctor Nefarious Tropy, Tiny Tiger, and Dingodile and berating them for a poor "track record for spreading evil". Uka Uka orders the group to come up with a plan to eliminate Crash Bandicoot as he is their main obstacle stopping their plans. N. Tropy reveals that Cortex has been working on a "secret weapon" to which Cortex reveals that he is. However, this weapon has no power source. Uka Uka then suggests that they unleash The Elementals, a group of evil masks that have power over earth, water, fire, and air, and harness them as a power source for Cortex's weapon.

When severe natural disasters start to terrorize the Earth, Aku Aku deduces that The Elementals must have been released from their imprisonment. Aku Aku goes to confront his evil brother Uka Uka and confirms his suspicions and escapes when The Elementals tried to attack him. Returning home to Crash and Coco, he informs them of the situation and reveals that the only way to stop The Elementals is by trapping them with the Crystals. With the aid of Coco's Virtual Reality Hub System, Crash and Coco are able to travel the world in search of Crystals while fending off attacks from Cortex's secret weapon known as Crunch Bandicoot and The Elementals.

By the time that Crash and Coco collects all the Crystals and put The Elementals in their hibernation state, Crunch has reached maximum capacity with his elemental powers. Crash faces off with Crunch at Cortex's space station and manages to defeat him and free him from Cortex's influence. In his fury, Uka Uka tries to hit Cortex with a fireball and instead hits a vital part of the space station. This causes it to self-destruct with Crash, Aku Aku, Coco, and Crunch escaping in Coco's spaceship while Cortex and Uka Uka escaped with an escape pod that stranded them in the middle of Antarctica. Uka Uka furiously chases Cortex around a small piece of ice floe.